Religiousness as a predictor of alcohol use in high school students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religiousness and alcohol use of adolescents. A sample of high school seniors was drawn based on the second follow-up National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). Multiple regression was employed using a hierarchical strategy to determine the impact of religiousness on alcohol use when accounting for other factors that have been shown to affect alcohol use. The results provide support for examining religiousness variables as predictors of alcohol use patterns for adolescents. Also, inconsistent patterns between Asian-American, Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian students were detected. Implications of the study and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Neighborhood racial & ethnic diversity as a predictor of child welfare system involvement

Using U.S. Census and child maltreatment report data for 2052 Census tracts in Los Angeles County, California, this study uses spatial regression techniques to explore the relationship between neighborhood social disorganization and maltreatment referral rates for Black, Hispanic and White children. Particular attention is paid to the racial–ethnic diversity (or ‘heterogeneity’) of neighborhood residents as a risk factor for child welfare system involvement, as social disorganization theory suggests that cultural differences and racism may decrease neighbors' social cohesion and capacity to enforce norms regarding acceptable parenting and this may, in turn, increase neighborhood rates of child maltreatment. Results from this study indicate that racial–ethnic diversity is a risk factor for child welfare involvement for all three groups of children studied, even after controlling for other indicators of social disorganization. Black, Hispanic and White children living in diverse neighborhoods are significantly more likely to be reported to Child Protective Services than children of the same race/ethnicity living in more homogeneous neighborhoods. However, the relationships between child welfare system involvement and the other indicators of social disorganization measured, specifically impoverishment, immigrant concentration child care burden, residential instability, and housing stress, varied considerably between Black, Hispanic and White children. For Black children, only housing stress predicted child maltreatment referral rates; whereas, neighborhood impoverishment, residential instability, and child care burden also predicted higher child maltreatment referral rates for Hispanic and White children. Immigrant concentration was unrelated to maltreatment referral rates for Black and Hispanic children, and predicted lower maltreatment referral rates for White children. Taken together, these findings suggest that racial–ethnic diversity may be one of the more reliable neighborhood-level demographic indicators of child welfare risk across different racial/ethnic groups of children. However, many of the other neighborhood characteristics that influence child maltreatment referrals differ for Black, Hispanic and White children. Consequently, neighborhood-based family support initiatives should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to child abuse prevention and strategically consider the racial/ethnic make-up of targeted communities.     

Teaching and learning in multicultural contexts: a comparative analysis of language teaching and learning in a Norwegian and Dutch primary school classroom

In this paper, multicultural primary school classes in Norway and the Netherlands are compared in terms of language teaching and learning. Drawing on observations, interviews, and school and policy documents, four dimensions of comparison are discussed. First, we deal with the different ways in which separate language classes for language minority pupils were organized in the two cases. Secondly, the different ways of teaching and the underlying views on learning language are characterized. Thirdly, we analyse how these ways of teaching affect on language minority pupils. Fourthly, we address the question as to how these approaches relate to the educational policies, traditions and discourses of the respective countries.     

Self-perception and relationship quality as mediators of father's school-specific involvement and adolescent's academic achievement

Despite a growing body of research suggesting fathers play an integral role in the lives of their children, less is known about father's involvement in their early adolescent's schooling. Even less is known about the mechanisms through which father's involvement influences early adolescent's academic success. The current study explores two characteristically different mechanisms as mediators of the association between father's involvement and adolescent's academic achievement: self-perception, and father-adolescent relationship quality. Results from structural equation modeling suggested differential mediating effects for each model, supporting both partial and full mediation. Findings suggested that how adolescents feel about themselves and their own abilities, as well as the quality of the relationship that fathers maintain with them has meaningful implications relating to how well they perform academically. Such findings further highlight the need for an exploration of differentiated conceptualizations of the processes underlying the association between father's school-specific involvement and adolescent's academic achievement.     

Routine activities and sexual assault: an analysis of individual- and school-level factors

The efficacy of routine activities theory is examined to explain sexual assault on the college campus. Although many research studies have utilized routine activities theory to predict sexual assault using individual-level factors, little is known about the effect of school-level factors on a student's risk of sexual assault. Based on interviews from 3,036 randomly selected students and surveys from 11 randomly selected colleges in the United States, a hierarchical linear model was created to predict student victimizations by school characteristics. For the individual, results reveal that being female, drug use, and marital status are statistically significant for predicting the probability of a sexual assault. At the institutional level, however, none of the variables are significant in predicting sexual assault among college coeds. Policy implications for prevention measures on college campuses are discussed.     

Variation of aggressive interaction among male elementary school children as a function of changes in spatial density

The behavior of children was monitored during unstructured playground activity in areas of differing size. The frequency of fighting increased significantly in the smaller area, although the aggressive episodes were of briefer duration. In addition, the style of aggression differed significantly between the two conditions. Fighting in the smaller area typically involved more than two children. The results are considered in the context of Hediger's critical distance hypothesis (1950).This article is based in part upon a paper presented to the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, April 1975.The authors wish to thank the administration of Crockett Elementary School, San Marcos, Texas, for their cooperation during the course of the research for the study.     

Sociology and the environment: An analysis of journal coverage

Many sociologists have suggested that the dominant paradigm in sociology ignores the environment, which accounts for the fact that environmental sociology is poorly represented in sociology’s mainstream journals. The purpose of this article is to test this assumption empirically by examining the coverage of environmental sociology in nine mainstream sociology journals from 1969 through 1994. The nine journals are separated into two tiers, representing higher and lower prestige journals. Each environmental article is categorized by its area (attitudes and behaviors, environmental movement, political economy, risk, and “new human ecology”) and whether it involves “sociology of the environmental issues” (the application of standard sociological perspectives to environmental issues) or “core environmental sociology” (the examination of societal-environmental relationships). We find that less than two percent of all articles published in the sampled journals in the twenty-five-year period of study were environmental, and that the higher tier journals were less likely to publish environmental articles than were the lower tier journals. Environmental articles were more likely to be part of “core environmental sociology” after 1981 than they were “sociology of the environmental issues,” which suggests a greater recognition among both environmental sociologists and journal reviewers that human societies are ecosystem-dependent. The number of environmental articles increased in the 1990s, portending a fruitful period for sociologists specializing on the environment. We argue that the broader field of sociology can benefit by recognizing the linkages environmental sociology has to other sociological specializations and that, ultimately, sociology needs to be able to address environmental variables in order to understand society. Naomi T. Krogman’s primary interest is in stakeholder framing of environmental disputes and natural resource policy change. She is currently a research sociologist at the Center for Socioeconomic Research at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and adjunct faculty in the Department of Sociology, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA 70504-0198. JoAnne DeRouen Darlington is a research sociologist focusing on social change and community sustainability emerging from the disastrous interactions between society and the environment. She is currently employed with the Natural Hazards Research Center, Campus Box 482, Boulder, CO 80309.     

Measuring and evaluating school performance: an investigation of status and growth-based achievement indicators

Several school performance indices were evaluated using achievement data from multiple longitudinally matched middle school student cohorts in a large district in the southwestern United States. Measures designed to index the within-cohort achievement status and growth of students as well as the status and growth-based changes that occur over years between different student cohorts were studied. Within- and between-cohort status and growth-based estimates of school performance were generated by applying simple and relatively complex statistical models to the longitudinal time-series data obtained on students. Results indicated that within-cohort status-based estimates were closely related to student demographics and between-cohort estimates were associated with cohort enrollment size and initial performance level. These results suggest that schools may often be rewarded and penalized on the basis of factors over which school personnel have limited or no control. Implications for the measurement and evaluation of school performance are discussed.     

Whose knowledge is valued: a critical study of knowledge in elementary school textbooks in China

This study critically examines knowledge in elementary school textbooks in China. Language analysis and story‐line analysis are used to examine how the knowledge related to minority groups and how the knowledge related to the Han group are introduced and interpreted. This study finds that the Han knowledge dominates elementary school textbooks in China and that minority knowledge and culture are under‐represented, which demonstrates that the dominant Han group’s knowledge is seen as the ‘truth’ while minority knowledge is seen as backward. Moreover, through the dominant Han group’s selection and construction of school knowledge, the Han group reproduces its ideology and legitimates its hegemonic control over minority groups. Minority knowledge and culture are, therefore, subjugated.     

The involvement of canadian unions in political activities: An exploratory analysis

A conceptual framework is presented that depicts the political activities of public employee unions. The framework explicitly recognizes that access to elected officials affects unions’ ability to achieve political influence. Data covering 95 local unions in 26 major Canadian municipalities are used to test the framework. The results generally support the framework and suggest several observations about the effectiveness of union political activities. We are grateful to Susan Schwochau for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Income inequality,cultural capital,and high school students' academic achievement in OECD countries: A moderated mediation analysis

This study examines how social context, in this case, income inequality, shapes the role of cultural capital in educational success. First, we revisit the associations between (objectified) cultural capital and academic achievement, and cultural capital's role in mediating the relationship between family SES and academic achievement. More importantly, we explore how national-level income inequality moderates these two relationships. By analyzing a multilevel dataset of 32 OECD countries, a combination of PISA 2018 data and several national indexes, we find that: (1) cultural capital not only has a positive association with students' academic achievement but also acts as a significant mediator of the relationship between family SES and academic achievement in OECD countries; (2) both cultural capital's association with academic achievement and it's mediating role are stronger in more equal countries than in unequal ones. The findings shed new light on understanding how cultural capital shapes intergenerational education inequality across countries with different levels of inequality.     

Using developmental evaluation as a system of organizational learning: An example from San Francisco

In the last 20 years, developmental evaluation has emerged as a promising approach to support organizational learning in emergent social programs. Through a continuous system of inquiry, reflection, and application of knowledge, developmental evaluation serves as a system of tools, methods, and guiding principles intended to support constructive organizational learning. However, missing from the developmental evaluation literature is a nuanced framework to guide evaluators in how to elevate the organizational practices and concepts most relevant for emergent programs. In this article, we describe and reflect on work we did to develop, pilot, and refine an integrated pilot framework. Drawing on established developmental evaluation inquiry frameworks and incorporating lessons learned from applying the pilot framework, we put forward the Evaluation-led Learning framework to help fill that gap and encourage others to implement and refine it. We posit that without explicitly incorporating the assessments at the foundation of the Evaluation-led Learning framework, developmental evaluation’s ability to affect organizational learning in productive ways will likely be haphazard and limited.     

An analysis of concept learning: Simple conceptual control and definition-based conceptual control

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Concept learning can involve either contingency shaping of stimulus-class discriminations or the application of definitions of the concepts. Experimental behavior...     

Prevalence and correlates of alcohol use in a survey of rural elementary school students: the New Hampshire study.

Alcohol use by 1190 fourth, fifth and sixth grade students was assessed in a survey of four rural New Hampshire school districts. Half the students surveyed (596) drank, but not regularly; 5 percent (59) were regular drinkers, and an additional 2 percent (19) were regular drinkers and had been drunk at least once. Reported alcohol use increased with both grade and age, and males drank more than females. The child's attitude toward drinking, perceived family attitudes towards drinking, the number of drinking friends, and self-perceived wrongdoing by the child were four factors strongly related to alcohol use. Increased alcohol use was also associated with experimental and current use of cigarettes, marijuana, and smokeless tobacco.